He was also known for his trademark black and white houndstooth hat (even though he normally wore a plaid one), deep voice, casually leaning up against the goal post during pre-game warmups, and holding his rolled-up game plan while on the sidelines.

[4][5][6] During his senior season, Bryant played offensive line and defensive end, and the team won the 1930 Arkansas state football championship.

[26] On February 12, 1943, in the North Atlantic the oil tanker USS Salamonie suffered a steering fault and accidentally rammed the SS Uruguay amidships.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt decorated Uruguay's Captain, Albert Spaulding, with the Merchant Marine Distinguished Service Medal for saving many lives, his ship and her cargo.

[citation needed] Bryant was later granted an honorable discharge to train recruits and coach the North Carolina Navy Pre-Flight football team.

Marshall put him in contact with Harry Clifton "Curley" Byrd, the president and former football coach of the University of Maryland.

[34] The 1950 Kentucky Wildcats football team finished with a school best 11–1 record and concluded the season with a victory over Bud Wilkinson's top-ranked Oklahoma Sooners in the Sugar Bowl.

But several other contemporaneous polls, as well as the Sagarin Ratings System applied retrospectively, declared Bryant's 1950 Wildcats to be the national champions, but neither the NCAA nor College Football Data Warehouse recognizes this claim.

[39] Though he led Kentucky's football program to its greatest achievement, Bryant resigned after the 1953 season because he felt that Adolph Rupp's basketball team would always be the school's primary sport.

"[52] At the close of the 1957 season, having compiled an overall 25–14–2 record at Texas A&M, Bryant returned to Tuscaloosa to take the head coaching position, succeeding Jennings B. Whitworth, as well as the athletic director job at Alabama.

[63] In 1961, with quarterback Pat Trammell and football greats Lee Roy Jordan and Billy Neighbors, Alabama went 11–0 and defeated Arkansas 10–3 in the Sugar Bowl to claim the national championship.

Alabama finished #8 in the AP Poll[68][69] In 1964 the Tide went 10–0 in the regular season and won another national championship, but lost 21–17 to Texas in the Orange Bowl.

[70][71][72] The Tide ended up sharing the 1964 national title with Arkansas, as the Razorbacks won the Cotton Bowl Classic, and had beaten Texas in Austin.

[78][79] However, Alabama finished third in the AP Poll behind Michigan State and champions Notre Dame, who had previously played to a 10–10 tie in a late regular season game.

[81] The 1967 Alabama team was billed as another national championship contender with star quarterback Kenny Stabler returning, but they stumbled out of the gate and tied Florida State, 37–37, at Legion Field.

)[90] Bryant said that the prevailing social climate and the overwhelming presence of noted segregationist George Wallace in Alabama, first as governor and then as a presidential candidate, did not let him do this.

Junior-college transfer John Mitchell became the first black player for Alabama in 1971 because freshmen, thus Jackson, were not eligible to play at that time.

This included abandoning the pro-style offense tailored to departed quarterback Scott Hunter's passing ability for the relatively new wishbone formation.

[96] The 1971 Alabama Crimson Tide football team went undefeated in the regular season and rose to #2 in the AP Poll, but were dominated by top-ranked Nebraska 38–6 in the Orange Bowl.

At the end of the year, number 2 Alabama would beat undefeated and top-ranked Penn State in the Sugar Bowl, with the famous late-game goal line stand to preserve the victory.

[123] Bryant experienced a mild stroke in 1980 that weakened the left side of his body, another cardiac episode in 1981, and was taking a battery of medications in his final years.

[124][125] Shortly before his death, Bryant met with evangelist Robert Schuller on a plane flight and the two talked extensively about religion, which apparently made an impression on the coach.

[126] After a sixth-place SEC finish in the 1982 season that included losses to LSU and Tennessee,[127] each for the first time since 1970, Bryant, who had turned 69 that September, announced his retirement, stating, "This is my school, my alma mater.

"[131] Four weeks after making that comment, and just one day after passing a routine medical checkup, on January 25, 1983, Bryant checked into Druid City Hospital in Tuscaloosa after experiencing chest pain.

[132][133][134] His personal physician, Dr. William Hill, said that he was amazed that Bryant had been able to coach Alabama to two national championships in what would be the last five years of his life, given the poor state of his health.

[138] In 1962 Bryant filed a libel suit against The Saturday Evening Post for printing an article by Furman Bisher ("College Football Is Going Berserk") that charged him with encouraging his players to engage in brutality in a 1961 game against the Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets.

Danny Ford (Clemson, 1981), Howard Schnellenberger (Miami of Florida, 1983), and Gene Stallings (Alabama, 1992), one of the Junction Boys, all won national championships as head coaches for NCAA programs while Joey Jones, Mike Riley, and David Cutcliffe are active head coaches in the NCAA.

Charles McClendon, Jerry Claiborne, Sylvester Croom, Jim Owens, Jackie Sherrill, Bill Battle, Bud Moore and Pat Dye were also notable NCAA head coaches.

[159] Arians also served as a successful head coach of the Arizona Cardinals, leading them to just their second ever appearance in the NFC Championship Game in 2015.

[166][167][168] Bryant is also mentioned as one of the titular 'Three Great Alabama Icons' in the song of the same name by the Drive-By Truckers on their album Southern Rock Opera.